Description
The role of gender in shaping the outlook of violent extremism (VE) in many European societies becomes increasingly intriguing. Female involvement in political and religious movements that engage in VE reveals diverse roles, motivations, and participatory forms. Women or girls who join extremist movements, for instance, have organized women-only online spaces as part of their ‘everyday practice’. Rising home-grown radicalisation among young male refugees in their new host countries also shows how diverse Islamist terror organisations have used social media to spread their political agenda and to circulate gender stereotypes narratives, fake news, and misogynist ideology.
Our paper employs a case study approach to examining the role of gender in shaping the nature of extremism in cyber space and police responses to radicals’ online propaganda and communication. We argue that the focus on radicalization and gender might prove to be contra-productive as they fall short of providing insights into how new social media has enabled people interested in these ideas to form communities, conspiracy theories and distrust in institutions. We provide insights into the ways in which extremist views are communicated in cyber space, how such activity is monitored and how sociotechnical concepts and tools (e.g. a theory of media effects, algorithm meaning-making, online community-shaping) might help address the pitfalls of mainstream concepts while tackling the challenges posed by the spread of virulent fringe ideas in the cyber space leading to violence.
